Networks based on coaxial cabling originally deployed for cable television transmission are becoming increasingly popular as a means of delivering broadband network services including Internet connectivity, voice calls, video, and other media. In a broadband cable network, customer premises equipment (“CPE”) such as a personal computer or Internet Protocol (“IP”) phone is interfaced to the cable network through a network interface unit (“NIU”). An example of an NIU is a cable modem. Logically separate from the NIU in the cable network is a head-end facility that contains routing, switching, and transmission equipment. There may be hundreds or more NIUs coupled through the network to equipment at the head end.
Two standards have emerged as the most popular methods for formatting and communicating media over cable networks: DOCSIS™ and DVB/DAVIC. DOCSIS refers to the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification developed and owned by CableLabs. DVB/DAVIC refers to the “open” international standards DVB-RCCL (ETSI ETS 300 800) and DAVIC 1.5 for broadband communication over cable and wireless/microwave, which is promoted by the DVB/DAVIC Interoperability Consortium of Soborg, Denmark.
In DVB/DAVIC systems, the quality of service received from the cable network by an NIU is determined by a device at the head-end called an Interactive Network Adapter (“INA”). When an NIU starts operating or boots up, it establishes a logical connection to an INA. However, the DVB/DAVIC standards do not specify how the INA applies the correct class of service to a connection to a particular NIU.
In one past approach, a quality of service profile management information base (“QoS Profile MIB”) is defined in storage in the INA. The QoS Profile MIB is allocated a fixed amount of storage in the INA. As NIU's are deployed in the network, information identifying the NIUs that are connected to and served by an INA is added to the NIU MIB table manually, by an administrator working with INA management software. As a result, each INA acquires knowledge about the NIUs that it serves. While this approach is useful for changing the QoS of an NIU connection on demand, it has several disadvantages.
First, a fixed-size table such as the NIU MIB does not assure that all NIU's in the network can be served by the INA. Each NIU that is provisioned takes up INA MIB table space, regardless of whether a user, client computer or other CPE device associated with the NIU is signed-on to the network. When an NIU is permanently removed from the network, an administrator is required to manually remove the corresponding MIB table entry from the INA MIB table. Further, an over-subscribed INA can run out of MIB table entries even when only a fraction of the NIUs are actually connected to the network or in use.
Second, the provisioning process is manual. Any provisioning addition or change that needs to be made is done manually using the INA management software. There is presently no way to automate the process.
Based on the foregoing, there is a clear need for an improved and more efficient way to communicate network quality of service information from cable network head-end equipment to network interface units.
There is also a need for a way to manage the QoS Profile MIB table, or functionally equivalent tables, using a more flexible approach that avoids causing the INA to run out of table entries. For example, there is a need for a method of adding entries to the table or removing entries from the table as NIUs actual enter or leave service in the network.
There is also a need for a more flexible approach that provides automatic addition and deletion of information about NIUs to and from tables such as the QoS Profile MIB table.